Deborah Lynam, a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia, seen with her son Hudson, 11, at their home in Haddon Heights, N.J., has helped build the parent-driven advocacy group into a 50-state movement that presses its concerns nationally.—Charles Mostoller for Education Week

Four years ago, during a train ride to a luncheon sponsored by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, a group of New Jersey parents found they shared the same frustrating story: Their children were struggling to learn to read.

But they felt the schools' reading interventions—if such supports were even offered to their children—were unfocused efforts overseen by educators without specific training in how to address the problem.

That informal connection among parents has since grown into an influential movement, Decoding Dyslexia. Harnessing the power of social media, the grassroots group now has a presence in all 50 states, as well as sympathetic ears among federal and state lawmakers and administrators in the U.S. Department of Education.

"The influx of energy that the parents have invested in this has really started to raise the tide for a lot of other organizations," said Deborah Lynam, one of the original New Jersey parents and among the more visible faces of Decoding Dyslexia. "The parents have just opened the door on something."'